Fresh off a stellar turn with Canada’s national junior team, goaltender Jonathan Bernier has nominally thrown a monkey-wrench into the Kings’ net-minding plans, with two excellent performances thus far. Kings’ coach Marc Crawford suggested the three-way competition for jobs in goal (among Dan Cloutier, Jason Labarbera and J.S. Aubin) is now a four-way battle, as a result of Bernier’s strong work.

Because Bernier is just 19, the Kings would need to send him back to junior if he doesn’t make the NHL team, which seems the most likely scenario anyway, given GM Dean Lombardi’s philosophy of not rushing kids, especially kid goalies. Crawford reiterated that he made a mistake last year in rushing to name Cloutier as his No. 1 man and sending Labarbera to the minors, where he languished all year, the Kings afraid to call him up, for fear of losing him on waivers. According to Crawford, the Kings will take three goalies to Europe with them and won’t get their roster down to size until after they play their first two games (the league gave them and the Ducks a special dispensation to do so in exchange for starting the season four days ahead of everybody else). Cloutier won the Sharks’ game with a dazzling save in the shootout, but overall, he had just a so-so outing and is clearly not where he wants to be yet. Bernier looked sharper but maybe that had something to do with having almost a month of hockey under his belt already.

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings introduced the club’s new mascot, Bailey, on LAKings.com, the club’s official website, on Friday, Sept. 21. Bailey will make his first public in-arena appearance on Saturday, Sept. 22, during the Kings-Colorado “Frozen Fury 10” preseason game at the MGM Grand (game time is 7 p.m.).

Photo Gallery | Bailey's Bio | Join Bailey's Buddies

“As an organization, we feel it is very important to connect with our fans and with the public as a whole and a mascot is a great and fun way to accomplish this, especially as it relates to kids,” said Kings President, Business Operations Luc Robitaille. “Bailey will be active and visible in our community, especially with our fan development, community relations and game entertainment departments.”

Bailey is a 6-0 lion (6-4 with mane) who wears No. 72 (after all, isn’t it always 72 degrees in Los Angeles?). While in Las Vegas this weekend, Bailey will also be visiting Sunrise Children’s Hospital on Friday from 2 – 3 p.m. with Kings radio color commentator and former left wing Daryl Evans.

Bailey was named in honor of the late Garnet “Ace” Bailey -- who served as the Kings’ Director of Pro Scouting for seven years; spent 32 seasons in the NHL as a player (he played left wing for Boston, Detroit, St. Louis and Washington) or scout, and had seven Stanley Cup rings. In addition to his successful hockey career, Ace was known not only for his warm and fun-loving personality but also for his love and work with children’s charities. As part of his lasting legacy, the Ace Bailey Children’s Foundation was established in 2002 and the Kings will make an annual donation to the Foundation (for more information on the Ace Bailey Children’s Foundation, visit www.acebailey.com).

The mascot will make his first Southern California in-arena appearance at the Kings’ regular season STAPLES Center home opener on Saturday, Oct. 6, against St. Louis. If you are interested in meeting Bailey and having him attend a special event, please contact the Kings’ Mascot Coordinator at 213-763-5475 or tsmith@lakings.com.

Saturday night’s Kings-Colorado preseason game will be broadcast on KTLK 1150 and along the Kings Radio Network. The Kings’ 2007-08 regular season opener is in London, England, on Saturday, September 29, at 9 a.m. (PT). The game will be broadcast on FSN Prime Ticket, on KTLK 1150 and along the Kings Radio Network.

By Scott Burnside
Everyone loves the new-look Los Angeles Kings. GM Dean Lombardi surely has put his stamp on the team in a dramatic fashion since his arrival at the end of the 2005-06 season. He has assembled or secured an exciting cast of young players, including Anze Kopitar, Michael Cammalleri and Jack Johnson, who should blend nicely with emerging stars like Alexander Frolov, Lubomir Visnovsky, Brad Stuart and Ladislav Nagy.

The Kings have got an experienced coach in Marc Crawford, who knows a thing or two about blending the old and the young. Now, if only the Kings had a No. 1 NHL goaltender, they may well be knocking on the door to the playoffs instead of languishing at the bottom of the standings (they were 14th in the Western Conference last season). Like with other teams that are trying to drag themselves out of the doldrums (Chicago, St. Louis and Phoenix), there is no quick fix. It takes time, and for a team that was 28th on the road, 28th at home and 27th in defense, playing meaningful games in January and February might be a more realistic goal than actually making the playoffs. At least this season.

OFFENSE
The offense might be the least of the Kings' worries. Cammalleri has thrived in the new NHL, leading the team with 80 points, a 25-point jump from 2005-06. He just turned 25. Frolov had 35 goals and Kopitar had 20 as a rookie. Throw in Nagy (who has yet to see his point production match his potential at the NHL level), solid two-way center Michal Handzus (who is a 20-goal guy), and Dustin Brown (who also should hit the 20-goal mark), and you've got the makings of a balanced attack.

DEFENSE
This is where things get a little tricky for the Kings, who have assembled a lot of interesting pieces but do not know yet what the picture will look like. Johnson, the third overall pick in the 2005 draft, has the potential to be a force at both ends of the ice, but this will be his first full NHL season and he will need to be handled accordingly. Tom Preissing, who was plus-40 on a very good Ottawa team, will see lots of ice time. Stuart comes in with high expectations, but he didn't really hit his stride last season in Boston or Calgary, where he landed at the trade deadline. He will be expected, likewise, to shoulder a lot of the load in terms of ice time and responsibility. In another year, we might be touting this group as the best in the conference, but until this remade back end gets used to each other, there undoubtedly will be growing pains.
GOALTENDING
Ah, the goaltending. The problem is there has not been much of it in recent years. Unless Lombardi caught lightning in a bottle with former AHL player of the year Jason LaBarbera, it is going to be a major chink in the Kings' armor again this season. LaBarbera, 27, has played all of 34 NHL games and now will get a chance to carry the full weight of an NHL schedule. He has excelled at the minor league level (his 2.21 GAA was third in the AHL among netminders who played at least 40 games), but that's a big step on a team that still is in rebuilding mode. Dan Cloutier, a one-time Vancouver player who seems to have lost his way mentally if not physically, will try to get back in the groove. He won 97 games over a three-year period for Vancouver, but that seems like a lifetime ago. He will start the season in the AHL.

COACHING
As with all bad teams, it's hard to know just how good the coaching has been. Crawford couldn't get the talented Canucks over the hump, but he wasn't unemployed long -- the Kings snatched him up last offseason after tiring of Andy Murray's hard-fisted ways. This season will be a good test for Crawford because he will have lots more options in his lineup, but he will have to show pretty significant movement up the Western Conference standings to ensure his future behind the Kings' bench.

now champ will you please change your signature hes not the next roy, altho he might get to play against a team that roy coaches

You are about 20 minutes late...I posted the reason WHY he got sent down in the General Hockey thread.

Quote:

`It's not an indictment on his play, it's more of a reflection of where the team is at right now,'' coach Marc Crawford said. ``We always are concerned about the long-term development of all our players and, right now, the decision has been that (returning to juniors) probably is the environment that is conducive to his long-term development. He's going to be a great goalie. He is a great goalie.He's played his heart out here and he has not been at fault for how we've played. As a matter of fact, I think he's played pretty good.''

To make it simple for you Chadta...he got sent down because the Kings aren't ready for him, our defense is like swiss cheese. He will be next Roy, 2-3 yrs down the road when Bernier is holding the Cup you will say DAMN! 24champ was right!

To make it simple for you Chadta...he got sent down because the Kings aren't ready for him, our defense is like swiss cheese. He will be next Roy, 2-3 yrs down the road when Bernier is holding the Cup you will say DAMN! 24champ was right!

can i use that "he got sent down cuz the D is swiss cheese" line as my sig i mean in 2 or 3 years when the kings dont win the cup.

i mean no ill will dood, i really know nothing about him other then what i saw in the first game, and one game isnt enough to judge anybody, only reason i even knew of him was cuz of your next roy comment that i found really funny.

anyhow as for the general hockey thread, i jus tassumed that if a team had there own thread that any info about that team should be put there, and that the general thread was just that about hockey in general not about teams that had there own thread.

His interview with Kings GM Dean Lombardi on mostly Bernier and the reasoning for sending him down...gives long detailed answers.

Quote:

Q: Can you share a little about the conversation you had with Bernier today?

LOMBARDI: I met with him this morning and I told him what we were going to do. Whenever you're dealing with young players, and I've always believed this, the communication and the message, when they get sent down to the minors or junior, is critical. So I told him this morning... I think at the time, it was an emotional time for him. I told him to go see his teammates, to go through the emotional roller coaster and come back at 5 (p.m.) and meet with Ron Hextall and Billy Ranford and I. We met with him and went over how proud we are of him and how much he has accomplished. He's way ahead of schedule. Billy went over the four things we think he needs to work on, to stay focused and try to get better.

This is, in no way, an indictment of how he has played. Like I said, he went beyond our expectations. There's no way that we anticipated him going this far. We thought, when he came in, that he would get half an exhibition game, but obviously he continued to play well and showed enormous potential. We feel that the best way to ensure he realizes it, though, is to take it a step at a time and go back to junior. So that's basically it, in a nutshell. The meeting was a lot longer, but like I said, it's important that he understands where we're coming from and also what we expect of him now, going forward.

Q: You could have waited nine games before sending him down. Why did you choose now?

LOMBARDI: I struggled with this right from the beginning. It almost bordered on a moral dilemma. I think there's the

question of what's best for Jon. Most people know me enough, and how I feel about development, that is has to be taken a step at a time. I think I've made clear that I'm not big into hype for young players. So I was cautious at the beginning even, and like I said, I had to ask myself too, what's best for him and the franchise? I can remember a dilemma I had in San Jose my last year, when we were struggling to make the playoffs and I could have gone one of two ways. I could have traded draft picks just to try to make the playoffs that year, or do the right thing and actually load up on picks, and those picks turned into guys like (Steve) Bernier, (Milan) Michalek and (Matt) Carle. That was the right thing to do. At the time, it might not have looked that way, but that's how I feel about this. It's a tough decision, but I think it's the best thing for the franchise in the long run.

And I think, like I said, it's a very tough position to play. My experience with Nabokov and Kiprusoff and Toskala, you just have to be careful. And we're starting to put together now, with Jack Johnson coming in and Kopitar last year, there's nothing wrong with another piece maybe coming in down the road. That's how it's built. So it wasn't easy, but on the other hand, once you realize what you thought was best for the franchise, it was kind of easy. The only risk in this, as we told Jon, is that what happens sometimes with kids, particularly ones that do well, they'll go back and they'll struggle for a month because they're not focused or it's such a big letdown. I don't think Jon is like that. Last year, he didn't make that World Junior team, which was a huge setback for him. And he went right back and worked his butt off and took his team and went 16-1 in the Memorial Cup and just kept on going.

So it's a little setback for him, in his own mind. But we conveyed to him that it wasn't. `Look how much, how fast, you've come. To play in England, to have played at this level and played well.' So again, as a young man he probably doesn't look at it that way, but we're looking at it and saying, `Wow, we might have something here.' But you've got to do the right thing.

Q: Which specifically about this situation made you decide it wasn't working? Was he just not getting enough support from the defense or was it something you saw in his game?

LOMBARDI: Part of being a goaltender, and I guess you could say it with any athlete, but goaltending success... Other than a quarterback or a pitcher, the emotional toughness with the position is probably second to none. I think that's why a lot of young goaltenders have failed. You can't overlook the maturity factor, and being able to deal with the ups and downs and having, at some point, to carry a team. That is an enormous responsibility that he's going to have to do some day. I think that's why you see so many young goaltenders fail. They might, athletically, be capable of it, but the mental part of that game is incredibly...

I think, to me, that's why Ron Hextall was so successful. Everyone knows that mental makeup, that mental toughness, as much as his athleticism, made him great. Same with Billy Ranford. Both of those guys were Conn Smythe Trophy winners, not only because of their athleticism but because of their mental toughness. I just think you can't push that too fast. I know it may be a nebulous thing, but again, why risk it at this stage of the kid's career? And why risk it for the franchise? It just didn't make sense when you add it up. I think the experience for him was great. I mean, he got more experience than we anticipated. Like I said, knowing the way the kid came back from the World Juniors (experience), I think it's going to be tough at the beginning but I think he's going to come back and continue on with a vengeance. He's a pretty special kid.

Q: Did you anticipate the team being in the situation that it's in at this stage?

LOMBARDI: No. I think we all felt that we were going to be better than this. I don't think there's one person (in the front office) or downstairs who thought that we would be in this situation, but we didn't have any legs here. It's been one of the issues, the way we've come out from the beginning. There's not a lot of juice there, for whatever reason, and it's something that we're going to have to figure out here. We put ourselves in a hole. When you bring in a lot of new players, on a team that's searching for an identity, and you get off to this kind of start, it's certainly not a great recipe, but we're going to have to find a way through it. It starts in the (dressing) room. You can throw out all the cliches, but I don't think there's one guy in there who thinks we're playing up to our level.

Q: Following up on that, I was wondering if you could respond to something Crawford said this morning. He said, `We protected Jonathan Bernier and we protected Brady Murray from an environment that's not conducive for younger players.' How do you respond to that?

LOMBARDI: I don't know if this is what he's getting at... I don't think that's in Brady's case. We went over Brady this afternoon. There are some things that we want to tighten up on Brady. We went over some of his film and he was good, he understands where he was short and what he's got to work on. I think he realizes too, with the European game that he was playing there (in Switzerland), that he's going to have to tighten some things up. The kid is a real driven kid and I would expect him to embrace this. He was good and he understood. He said something to the effect of, `With the big rink, it's different and I've got to be better in these areas.' So in Brady's case, I don't think that was the case at all. In Jon's case, I think one of the things (Crawford) might be alluding to is, because we have not played well, I think the tendency is, when you see seven goals, is to look at the goaltending. I don't think, when you look at the goals, that you pin it on Jon. But I think the tendency is, sometimes, to do that, and it's not fair, particularly to him as a 19 year old.

So to put that burden... And this is what we told Jon. At some point in his career, and this is what the great goalies do, they put a team on their back. Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, the great ones...Hexy did it. `Here we go, the team is flat. Just get me one (goal) boys and I'll get it done.' At some point, you're going to expect your No. 1 goalie to do that, and hopefully Jon is the guy. But I don't think that's fair to him right now. I don't think anybody does. So I don't know if Marc's alluding to, in Jon's case, to expect him to put a team on his back, that has not found its legs for whatever reason, that part is not conducive for any player. I don't think that is fair. So if that's what he meant, I concur. The one thing to know is, as far as the room, there's not any fracture in the room, so to speak. I don't think there's a lack of character, so to speak, or guys that are bad influences. I think it's more that it's not fair to put it on Jon's back.

And this is what we told Jon. At some point in his career, and this is what the great goalies do, they put a team on their back. Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, the great ones...Hexy did it. `Here we go, the team is flat. Just get me one (goal) boys and I'll get it done.' At some point, you're going to expect your No. 1 goalie to do that, and hopefully Jon is the guy.

hey champ how about, berniernextboucher, it is after brian boucher who holds the record for most consecutive shut out minutes in the nhl, But he also is a very streaky hot and cold goalie which is why he cant seem to stick on a team for very long. Bernier may have looked like roy in the first game but apparently he hasny the last few, sounds to me like hes got boucher syndrome.

hey champ how about, berniernextboucher, it is after brian boucher who holds the record for most consecutive shut out minutes in the nhl, But he also is a very streaky hot and cold goalie which is why he cant seem to stick on a team for very long. Bernier may have looked like roy in the first game but apparently he hasny the last few, sounds to me like hes got boucher syndrome.

I can understand your jealousy...hope your happy with your overpaid pile of dung called Briere. Meanwhile I will enjoy the Kings youth movement that probably costs less than what Briere is getting paid.

actually ive been against the brieere signing all along, but ill let him live as long as the team keeps winning.

dont kid yourself tho with the youth thing, you arent exactly the penguins out there champ, young or old crappy is still crappy.

That's fine, however HockeyFuture.com (named the Kings the number one in organizational standings)and most hockey knowledgeable people that I know of say the Kings are on their way.

Quote:

Strengths: The Kings have two of the top 10 prospects (Jack Johnson and Patrick O'Sullivan) on Hockey's Future's Top 50 list and a third (Jonathan Bernier) also on the list, three players who could be the top prospect for 90 percent of the other teams in the league. The fact that the Kings have all three lifts them to elite status. A forward, a defenseman and a goaltender, the cupboards in LA are stocked very well indeed. There are also NCAA stars Brian Boyle and Scott Parse as well as notables Trevor Lewis, Joey Ryan and Richard Petiot. Weaknesses: You don't get to be at the top of the list if you have many holes so any faults with the Kings prospect pool would only be found with a microscope. The right wing might be a bit thinner than the other positions as former first rounder Lauri Tukonen's 13 goals and 32 points in the AHL this year was a small drop in production. Top Five Prospects: Jack Johnson (D), Patrick O'Sullivan (LW), Jonathan Bernier (G), Brian Boyle (C), Lauri Tukonen (RW) Key Graduates: Anze Kopitar

i stand by my original post, you aint no pittsburgh, they are a young talented team, your not.

I would venture to say your hockey knowledge is not up to snuff compared to the guys who do these articles for HF. By the way Socal who as we all know is a Pen fan, would say the Kings are on par with the Penguins as far as young talent goes. You are entitled to your opinion though Chadta.

PS Kings beat the previously undefeated Wild. 4-3 in the SO. Brown, Kopitar, and Cammy win it for the Kings. All who are under 25. Chew on that Chadta.

yeall well shootouts have no place in the game, you cannot decide a team sport on an individual performance.

congrats on your second win, 3 more and youll be 500

but dont think one win makes a team, the flyers beat the ducks last year 8-3, does that mean the flyers should be the real stanley cup champs ? NO, its the every blind squirell eventually finds a nut thing.

i really meant no ill will, was just adding something i thought was funny about your "future hall of fame goalie"

Perhaps the message finally got through. If Kings Coach Marc Crawford was attempting to send one, it resonated in a big way in the morning when forward Ladislav Nagy and his $3.75-million salary were taken out of the lineup, a healthy scratch for the first time this season.

Of the free agents acquired over the summer in what the Kings called "Plan B," perhaps Nagy has been the most invisible, recording three assists in six games.